Delta mode - compressors

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Soooo... a compressor I downloaded a few months ago has an option called Delta mode. Turning this on shuts out all the sound except for the peaks/sound being compressed. In other words, it's the opposite of listening with normal compression engaged (i believe that makes sense, ya?)

I've found this pretty useful to set my master bus compressor. I turn on Delta, then I adjust attack and release time until I hear the track pumping along rhythmically with the tempo. It's also good to judge what instruments are most responsible for triggering the compressor in the first place.

Overall, I find it very useful so far and I was wondering if any of you guys use this feature. Of the 6 compressors I own, this is the only one with that mode, however. Here's the link if you wanted to try it for yourself:

TDR Kotelnikov | Tokyo Dawn Records
 
I am not sure I understand how that could be useful. You should be monitoring the track content to judge if and when the compression makes it better (or worse). Simply chopping off peaks doesn't always make everything better. There is often a lot of valuable content hidden within those transient peaks that give attack to some instruments.
 
While I agree that the ears in context should be the judge, I also agree that the TDL stuff is quite friggin' good stuff. Well thought-out, uniquely featured and actually usable. Even the free versions are worth a bundle.
 
RawDepth said:
I am not sure I understand how that could be useful. You should be monitoring the track content to judge if and when the compression makes it better (or worse). Simply chopping off peaks doesn't always make everything better. There is often a lot of valuable content hidden within those transient peaks that give attack to some instruments.
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You missed the point. Delta (=change) is a listening mode that lets you hear the difference the compressor makes. You don't leave it in this mode, you just use it to temporarily emphasize certain things. You can do this with any compressor by mixing the compressed track with a polarity inverted copy of the track with the compressor bypassed.
 
Delta means difference which means subtract which means add the inverse. You can do this with any compressor by mixing it with the original (compensated for any pre/post gain in the comp) and inverting ("flipping phase") one or the other. (Reaper could do this all on one track)

You could use it as a bit different take on an expander/gate if you wanted to. I've never tried it, and don't know if it would actually be interesting, but everything is worth trying!

I'm building a couple of dynamics plugs ATM and this would be a simple feature to add.
 
Compressed vs. uncompressed? I can already do that by clicking the BYPASS button on and off.

But I understood the OP to say that it creates an inverse or negative copy of the signal which reveals only the peaks, (the part which has been reduced,) and no other underlying sound. Wouldn’t that just sound like a bunch of clicks and pops? Maybe I am missing the point, but (and I’m not trolling for an argument here,) I genuinely don’t understand how that would be useful information.

Maybe I need to download the plug and hear it for myself. (But, of course, I don't have time right now as I must run off to an appointment.) I'll check in later.

Thanks for any help.
 
RawDepth said:
Compressed vs. uncompressed? I can already do that by clicking the BYPASS button on and off.

But I understood the OP to say that it creates an inverse or negative copy of the signal which reveals only the peaks, (the part which has been reduced,) and no other underlying sound. Wouldn’t that just sound like a bunch of clicks and pops? Maybe I am missing the point, but (and I’m not trolling for an argument here,) I genuinely don’t understand how that would be useful information.

Maybe I need to download the plug and hear it for myself. (But, of course, I don't have time right now as I must run off to an appointment.) I'll check in later.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

It's not about comparing the compressed/uncompressed sequentially, it's about revealing what the compressor is doing while it's doing it. You're going to hear a rhythmic pumping of the audio that you can tune with attack and release to match the feel of the song. There's shouldn't be clicks and pops unless your attack and release times are set very low.
 
Nice Ash.. that makes sense.

ashcat_lt said:
Delta means difference which means subtract which means add the inverse. You can do this with any compressor by mixing it with the original (compensated for any pre/post gain in the comp) and inverting ("flipping phase") one or the other. (Reaper could do this all on one track)

You could use it as a bit different take on an expander/gate if you wanted to. I've never tried it, and don't know if it would actually be interesting, but everything is worth trying!

I'm building a couple of dynamics plugs ATM and this would be a simple feature to add.
Click to expand...
 
bouldersoundguy said:
You're going to hear a rhythmic pumping of the audio that you can tune with attack and release to match the feel of the song. There's shouldn't be clicks and pops unless your attack and release times are set very low.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sorry if I didn't explain what the audio reveals as well as I could have. Boulder and Ash explain it very well here. Particularly this quoted passage. No pops or clicks, just the audio pumping along rhythmically. I really like this feature - wish more compressors used it.
 
andrushkiwt said:
Will it work in other daws?
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If you download ReaPlugs, it includes ReaJS which should let you load it in any DAW that will run VST. It's actually almost completely redundant to ReaComp except that it has this Delta mode. It uses a lot more CPU than ReaComp partly because of how JS works and mostly because I haven't optimized it much. It's not real bad anyway. ReaComp is just super light.

I messed with Delta in testing and it is interesting. IDK that it would help me set the compressor, but it does work as a strange kind of expansion.

Note that in mine, you have to set the Dry Output equal to the Wet Output parameter for Delta to actually work. It defeats Auto-makeup to make things easier, but you have to move the output slider yourself. It could probably just override that in Delta mode, but I think this way allows more flexibility for creative uses.
 
Ash... now you are talkin' my language! Seriously, a JS framework for composing custom plug-ins? I am ALL OVER THAT, never knew this existed. I just assumed I would have to learn fast-fourier and raw signal processing.. and well, that's as far as I took it.

I don't use Reaper, but hopefully I an make it work with ReaPlugs. This will be fun.
 
andrushkiwt said:
i didn't see a post of this anywhere. you should share the news
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Well, I posted it on the Reaper forum... ;)

timvracer - Note that the JS stands for JesuSonic (not sure wtf that means), not JavaScript. I think it's an EEL based language, but really it's just like any other coding language. Figure out what they call certain things and how it's structured and it's not that tough. There's enough documentation, and a very helpful community for support. It has built in fft functions, but I've never messed with it because I kind of don't trust it. I have a few other things in the Reaper Stash if you want to poke around a bit.
 
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